A few semi noob questions...

1. Started Hall of Novice (Marauder/tank) and it says something like "that command not available" when I try to start Exercise 6. Do you need to be a certain level for each exercise level? This is the one for ranged attack and I did notice I have a ranged Tomahawk skill greyed out, yet a higher skill after it I can use... not sure if either of these things could be the reason I can't advance.

2. Using Aetheryte, especially with the smaller ones in cities, is there a way to click on them from the map to travel to them directly?

3. I've made it to level 20 and I don't think I've had a single mob drop armor or weapon... all my equipment is from quest reward and NPC vendors. I'm enjoying the game pretty well but it has felt pretty underwhelming killing mobs and having nothing ever drop - does this change at higher level or am I just horrible RNG?

4. Rare spawns/mobs and treasure chests? FATES seem really cool but I haven't seen a random chest or any rare named NPC... with mobs not dropping anything and not seeing anything special - once again not really 'excited' running around - my sense of adventure really just feels like 'doing tasks for quests'.

5. Is there a preview item skin? If I am on Marketplace/Trader... or hovering over item I haven't been able to preview the equipped or worn item.

Thanks in advance if anyone takes the time to respond...

Comments

2. you can only use the large aetherytes from the world map, the small ones are for in city travel.

3. Mobs don't drop weapons or armor, they do drop skins and other crafting mats though. Armor comes from either your Grand Company using seals to trade for gear, dungeons or NPC's in the main cities. Once you get higher level you'll start accruing tomes to trade in for good gear.

4. Once you hit 50 you can start doing "Hunts" they are boss mobs spawned over the maps, some you may solo some you need a full group, you get centurio seals, which you can turn in for gear. Also, Look up Aquapolis, too much info for me to explain here. https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/The_Aquapolis

5. You can preview any armor and dye scheme by right clicking said item.

#3 - Dungeon Bosses and Trials will drop chests, which almost always have gear. You can start dungeons once you unlock the Duty Finder via the Main Story Quest (around L15-16). Note that Guildhests do not reward gear, but are still going through once per class (particularly your first class). They are kinda like the Novice Training events, only with a full group of real people, and they reward a nice chunk of XP one your first go through.

#4 - Leves do have a chance to have random chests, and can provide gear and other items for rewards. They are very roughly the equivalent of daily quests in other games. Leves apply not only to combat classes, but also to gathering and crafting classes. The Adeventurer's Guild/Inn in major cities and most leveling zones have a NPC called "Levemete" that will show you your options. These start at Level 1 and work their way all the way to L60 in Heavensward. In my opinion, if you are solo, these are better than FATEs for getting that extra bit of XP needed to get between the spots in the Main Story Quest.

FATEs are one of the popular ways to level up alternate jobs, because in a group they are spammable and fast - you just go to the zone that's in your level range, and you stick around until you outlevel it and move to the next. I don't really recommend doing them solo unless you just happen to come across one while your doing other things.

Between quest rewards, leve rewards, dungeons, and the various currencies, I typically end up with gear coming out my ears, and a lot of it I will just use long enough to get 100% spirit bond and turn into materia. Occasionally I'll buy something off the Marketplace if I have a gap that hasn't been filled (or it's a tank class that needs good gear), but it isn't terribly often

I am stumbling along decently and for the most part things are well... appreciate all the help above.

1. I have one new huge issue as far as using cross class skills. I watch videos and read guides and they all say character->traits and abilities->additional... and then there is a selection of classes to take skills from. "Additional" does not show at all as a heading. I leveled a pugilist just to get a skill they say is good for archer - but even after my pugilist learned it and my archer was higher - it does not show. Does it unlock via a quest I skipped or is there more to it related to having to hit a certain level?

2. Far less important... when you accumulate all the gear, does the item skin save somewhere if you get rid of it? At higher levels I know you can use item appearances but didn't know if I needed to save something if I liked it.

Yup you figured out #1, that changed with Stormblood so it's a recent change.

#2 - The item skin doesn't get saved if you get rid of the equipment, unless you have actually used to to Glamour an item already. It's not quite the same as the WoW Transmog system. In order to Glamour an item, you must have the item in your possession that you wish to use the appearance of.

Once you glamour your base item, you can get rid of the appearance item if you wish, but you can't glamour an item based on an item that's already been glamoured, so if you want to use that appearance again, you need to save the original item.

So save them, if you want to use them. Supposedly the Armoire is supposed to help with this, but it's use (at least in my experience) has been extremely limited, and I rely more on my retainers to store items i may want to glamour later on.